Romania again best in the Cup of President of Inter Cars

18 May 2018

Beautiful sunny weather, spontaneously reacting crowds and high sporting level – on Sunday 13 May the football premises of OSiR Bemowo were taken over by Inter Cars. On that day 16 teams competed for victory in the 7th Inter Cars President Football Cup.

The whole tournament was composed of two parts. The first one was national qualifications, in which 18 teams competed. The best eight went through to the international finale. At the same time we sent invitations to our foreign branches, from which another eight teams came. These were the teams from Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Ukraine and Italy. This sixteen was competing in the grand finale - first in group phase (four groups of four teams each, two Polish and two foreign), and next - the winning eight - in cup phase: in quarter-final, semi-final and the game for the third place and of course in the finale. In total there were over 220 players in the qualifying round and in the finale phase over 200.

Roman Berliński, Quality Management Agent at Inter Cars

Before the event, the favourites were players from Inter Cars Romania, who took part in the finale for the seventh consecutive time, and who also won the last four tournaments as the champions. This year they started not too fortunate, as after just a few minutes of their first match they were losing with Mann Hummel 0:2. Finally they won 5:3, and as we could see later on in the following matches, these were just bad beginnings of pleasant experiences for Gheorge Hagi’s team. In the next two matches they won 5:0 with Warsaw South Branch and 3:0 with Lithuania, taking the first place in their group. In quarter-final Romania beat Hungary, and in the semi-final the team from HUB Sosnowiec, whilst in the grand finale of the tournament they won 3:0 with Croatia.

We are really happy that for the fifth time we have managed to win in the grand finale of the Inter Cars President Football Cup. For us the victory was equally important as the possibility of taking part in the tournament itself. I would like to congratulate all our colleagues who competed today in Warsaw, and especially our finale opponent, Croatian team, who put the bar really high and played a great game against us. Well, all the teams presented a really high level and were well prepared for the tournament.

Gabriel Pop, captain of the Romanian team

Congratulations to all those who took part in the competition, it was a great event and I am proud to have the opportunity of being a part of it. It is really encouraging to be able to see all those passionate players getting ready for the games and competing with one another. Some of them fought for victory, other only to have great fun. It reminds me of history a bit, when my father organized Inter Cars Olympic Games, composed of various disciplines. Of course, at that time it was much easier, as only 200 people took part in it, among them all our customers and employees. My dream is to repeat that event, but in a much greater scale, reflecting the current position of Inter Cars. We want to go that way, as competition has always been in the DNA of our Company. And coming back to the football cup, soon it is time to start preparations for another edition.

Maciej Oleksowicz, President of the Management Board of Inter Cars

Romania was victorious again in the finale, this time beating the Croatian team. The podium was closed by HUB Sosnowiec team, which bet Inter Cs Ukraine in the game for the third place. The best Polish team won all the three games in the group, winning 5:0 with Lithuania, but in the semi-final could not beat winners of the whole competition, losing with them 1:3. In the game for the third place, Sosnowiec team beat Ukraine 6:4.

From a purely sporting point of view, also teams from Inter Cars Bulgaria and Radom Branch Group can be proud of their games, which ended their participation in the group phase and as the only teams did not manage to win even one point. Both teams have already announced their comeback next year, with much better skills, which will allow them reach at least the cup phase. But getting to the international finale shall not be easy, as first they will have to get through the qualifications.

The tournament was really popular, and the best proof of this is the fact that if we had invited all the teams that wanted to take part in it, we would need at least two days to have all the matches held. For many of the teams it has been yet another time in the contest. They are always praising organization of it, having fun being together with others, and really willingly coming back in the following years. What is important, more than the rivalry itself, the fair play fight is on the first place for them. This year we had two rookies from foreign countries, Moldova and Bulgaria. Maybe next year we will have other ones.

Roman Berliński

Fair play competition is one thing. Another thing is that from organizational and sporting point of view the tournament is becoming greater and greater each year. The football level of the players is growing, each year they are coming better prepared and have stronger teams.

- This year, of course, the participants of the finale showed their best, i.e. Croatians and Romanians; also it is hard to say something bad about other teams and their skills. We were surprised by Lithuanian team, which in comparison to the previous edition made a great progress. Altogether the level of the tournament is growing year by year, and there are no more two-digit results in the games, which used to be normal in first editions. The matches are very much even, and all the players fight till the end to reverse the results of the games.

Roman Berliński

This was also noticed by Robert Kierzek, Vice President of the Management Board of Inter Cars, who was the originator of the tournament and in the first editions, was also one of the players. Without his involvement and organizational support on many levels it is hard to imagine the event to develop so dynamically. At the opening ceremony he said:

I want to congratulate all the participants of the tournament, and give my special thanks to the organizers of this year’s edition, who must be considered the “driving motors” of the whole undertaking: Roman Berliński, Tadeusz Wyszomierski, Anna Rospądek, Grzegorz Filipek, Elżbieta Zwolska, Agnieszka Iłendo and Agnieszka Ocipka. I hope that this initiative will continue to be developed in the pace it has been developing till today. For me this event has a special meaning, as this is my last tournament in such a role, but I do believe that the idea will be continued in the following years, and I will be visiting it as a supporter, to be able to cheer on the players.

Robert Kierzek, Vice President of the Management Board of Inter Cars

Our thanks also go to Mr Jacek Dutka, Director of Football Hall at Bemowo, who in the past years and in this year was looking after the technical aspects of the tournament, in the qualifying round which was held at the hall and also during the finale, which was held at MOSiR Bemowo premises.